Is there another way of looking at the world that changes our experience of life? Is it possible to choose to let go of fear and conflict completely? Is it possible to heal our painful thoughts and attitudes about the past and to bring peace to ourselves and others? Is it possible to forgive everyone who we think has hurt us, and to forgive ourselves for our mistakes and for the shame we feel about the past? Can we truly know peace and happiness while living in a world that seems so chaotic and crazy? Can we remove all our self-imposed blocks to love and come to know and trust in who we really are? Can we simplify our lives by recognizing that there are only two emotions – love and fear? Attitudinal Healing answers all these questions with an unqualified and enthusiastic Yes.
What Is Attitudinal Healing?
Attitudinal Healing is based on the belief that it is not people or external situations that cause us to be upset. Rather, what causes us conflict and distress are our thoughts, feelings, and attitudes about people and events. Attitudinal Healing is letting go of fear and our negative, hurtful thoughts from the past. Attitudinal Healing allows us to correct our misperceptions and to remove the inner obstacles to peace. This begins with a willingness to find another way of looking at the world, at life, and at death; to have peace of mind as our only goal; and to make forgiveness our primary function. It is discovering the effect that holding on to our grievances, blaming others, and condemning ourselves has, so that we can choose to no longer find value in them. Attitudinal Healing asserts that when we let go of fear, only love remains and that love is the answer to all of the problems we face in life. It is the recognition that our true reality never changes and that Love is all there is. My cherished friend Judy Skutch Whitson suggested the term when we first began the Center in 1975.
Attitudinal Healing
•Defines health as inner peace.
•Defines healing as letting go of fear.
•Regards our primary identity as spiritual and affirms that each individual possesses a quality of being or an inner nature that is essentially loving and that this loving nature is shared by all human beings.
• States that love is the most important healing force in the world.
•Does not tell other people what to do but offers them choices.
•Emphasizes equality in every aspect of our lives and affirms that we are all student and teacher to each other. •Recognizes that peace is our only goal.
•Emphasizes listening with empathy and without judgment or advice.
• Sets the goal of living a life focused on unconditional love. Attitudinal Healing views the purpose of all communication as joining and regards happiness as a choice. It recognizes that we are all worthy of love and that happiness is our own responsibility as well as our natural state of being. Attitudinal Healing acknowledges that our only function is forgiveness. Rather than making decisions based on the fearful past, it states that we can learn to make decisions by listening to the inner voice of love.
From Teach Only Love © 2000 by Gerald G Jampolsky, published by Beyond Words.
